Short stories from the year 2050
Jörg Eugster is "The Future Ambassador®". He regularly reports here from the year 2050 on how technologies and lifestyles have developed.
Lena watches a car drive by. «Hey, Grandpa, is it true that cars used to have steering wheels that you had to turn all the time?» – «Yes, Lena, that’s true.» Grandpa looks at his granddaughter with amusement. «Back then, you had to sit behind the wheel yourself and even use a foot pedal to accelerate and brake.» – «But wasn’t that a huge hassle?» – «No, it was completely normal.”.
»These days, everything drives itself. That’s very convenient, of course.« Grandpa sits down next to Lena on the bench. »You know, I’ve experienced every stage of mobility. Cars only gradually reached the highest level of autonomous driving. First, the steering wheels disappeared because AI managed traffic in the city and on the highways. Today, artificial intelligence manages a huge fleet of all kinds of vehicles that drive autonomously and with low emissions. You order a ride by sending your destination to the cloud. All you have to do is get in, and you’re taken to your destination. Depending on your ticket, you might be alone, or other people might join you. It’s just great these days.« – »I can’t even imagine it any other way,« Lena laughs, taking a bite of the apple Grandpa gave her. Grandpa loses himself in thought for a moment, then says, »Back in the day, we used to get stuck in traffic so often—and today?« Lena jumps up and exclaims, »Let’s order an express ride, and boom—the taxi drone lands and flies us to our destination.« – »But that just costs a little more,« Grandpa grins. »True, Grandpa, but Mom said that when a woman is out at night, it’s sometimes the safest way to get around because then no random guys can hop in along the way.« »Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that,« Grandpa says. He stands up, but Lena pulls him back down to the bench. »Grandpa, were there really airplanes back then with combustion engines that polluted the air?« – “Yes, unfortunately that was the case. It wasn’t until later that there were airplanes powered by green hydrogen. Today, those are used exclusively for intercontinental passenger and freight transport. For continental travel, the Hyperloop has become the standard. As you know, we travel from city to city at over 1,000 kilometers per hour in a vacuum tube.”.
It’s much faster and cleaner than it used to be with those old, dirty airplanes. Fortunately, practically all modes of transportation today run on clean fuels like hydrogen and electricity. »You have no idea, Lena, how we used to struggle with smog and ozone in the air. Thanks to new mobility, that’s fortunately a thing of the past.« – »That really is a blessing, Grandpa. I’m infinitely grateful for it. Okay, now let’s get going!”
